Editor Christopher Huth has joined the staff of Union Editorial. Known for affecting stories that span the spectrum of human emotion, Huth edited 2016 Cannes Direct Gold Lion-winner Pantene “DadDo” via Grey (directed by Pam Thomas), and “Dear Sophie” (directed by Henry & Rel), one of three Google Chrome spots from BBH and Google Creative Labs that collectively earned AICP Best in Show distinction for Advertising Excellence/Campaign in 2012. Huth recently completed anthem spots for Tempurpedic (via Hill Holliday, directed by Josh Taft) and USPS (via McCann, directed by Henry-Alex Rubin), as well as a short film for Chicco (via Mullen, directed by John X. Carey). Huth comes over from WAX, having begun his career at Lost Planet.
Graduating in 2006 with a BA from the University of Michigan’s Department of Screen Arts and Cultures, Huth began his studies as a chemistry major. “I hated sitting in dark rooms, so I abandoned the lab for the edit bay,” he joked. In fact, Huth’s path would lead him through other creative pursuits before taking his seat in the bay: he spent a year as a house fellow at Villa Guicciardini in Florence, Italy, and another year as resident curator at UnionDocs in Brooklyn, NY. Huth honed his craft at Lost Planet under Hank Corwin. Among Huth’s first opportunities was the aforementioned “Dear Sophie.” Another Google piece, “Demo Slam,” directed by Tim Abshire via Johannes Leonardo, won a Gold Lion for Film at Cannes, as well as Gold and Silver Clios, in 2011. Huth counts AT&T’s “It’s not Complicated” (BBDO, Jorma Taccone, dir.) and HoneyMaid’s “Anthem” (Droga5, Martin+Lindsay, dirs.) among his favorite historical projects, and works frequently with directors Lisa Rubisch and David Frankham. In 2014, Huth edited VISA’s Olympics entry, “Faces”, via BBDO and directed by Sweetgrass.
“Every job is a puzzle,” said Huth. “To solve each one requires just the right mixture of technique, team and usually blind luck. The first two, anyway, Union has in spades.” He added, “Union has built a fantastic team ready to take on the creative and technical challenges that the industry loves to throw our way as it reinvents itself every six months. There are no more offline edits anymore–design and visual effects can play as big a role in spots as music does–and Union’s graphics team is unrivaled.”
Union is presided over by partner/managing director Michael Raimondi and partner/executive producer Caryn Maclean. The Union roster is comprised of partner/editors Jim Haygood, Einar, Jay Friedkin, Sloane Klevin, Marco Perez, and editors Huth, Nico Alba, Jinx Godfrey, Nicholas Wayman-Harris, Rachael Waxler, Daniel Luna, Jason Lucas, Paul Plew, Ben Longland, Laura Milstein, Eric Argiro, Karen Kourtessis, Zach Kashkett and Andrew Doga, as well as select projects with Tim Thornton Allen and Phil Hignett.
Union Editorial has offices in Los Angeles, New York, Austin, and London, where it maintains an alliance with Marshall Street Editors. The company also develops and produces original content, in partnership with Killer Content companies through its Union Entertainment Group banner. Other Union companies include Platform, a creative and advertising solution for the gaming industry; and Resolution, a visual effects boutique specializing in commercials, features and gaming.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads โ essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More